August 2006 Archives

A federal judge threw out a $50 million compensatory damage award and ordered a new trial on damages after an August 17th jury verdict held Vioxx manufacturer Merck & Co. liable for failing to warn doctors about the dangers of Vioxx. The verdict will stand, but the judge found the amount of the award (given to a retired FBI agent who suffered a heart attack after taling Vioxx) to be "grossly excessive" under the circumstances of the case.

A national pediatricians' organization urged parents to stop putting their children in shopping carts on family trips to the grocery store. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), comprised of more than 60,000 pediatricians, cited the growing number of shopping cart-related injuries (and potential defects in the design of the carts themselves) as evidence of the need for a safer alternative to the placement of kids in shopping carts.